About

In a nutshell, this is what I’m about: empathy as a principle not only for social justice but for the fundamental creative principle. I am a poet, journalist, author, photographer and book designer – a man of many pursuits in an age of monoculture.

If you enjoy a deep, thorough and probing discussion on the themes of art, poetry, film and social justice, you’ll find something here to interest you. I’m open to discussion so please post comments.

A vintage typewriter
A nice piece which reminded me of my own two old Pentax K 1000’s which travelled across Europe with me and still do the business today.

Despite my advanced age I never took to the typewriter, and went from long hand to computer in the 1990s.

For me it was the instant way you could correct a mistake, alter a sentence or just delete and start again. Now these are not things to be sniffed at when you have spent your life with a mild form of dyslexia which has made you cautious about what you write. It can sap your confidence and turns the sheer pleasure of writing into a slow laborious and hesitant exercise.

The upside of the computer is not only what it allows me to do with words, but the opportunities it offers to use photographs, data handling packages and of course to the internet.

But I guess the downside has been the loss of jobs. Within a few short years of the opening of the line between Manchester and Liverpool, the railway network covered the country and consigned the horse drawn mail coaches to the history book.

And in the same way armed with a decent computer and printer who now need the skill of a print firm to produce design and publish anything from leaflets to business cards? And which newspaper now needs the army of people engaged in making up news print?

Andrew: thanks for your thoughts on the latest post. I guess I should have been clear that I wasn’t slagging the benefits of computers or word processing software. Just indulging in nostalgia, mostly. More to the point about the throwaway everything society.

I still use the touch typing method I learned in high school on an old manual typewriter. You can’t get a faster typing speed than with that method.

Hey Art,
I’m actually a neighbour of yours. I am hoping to schedule an interview with you to better absorb any wisdom you would have to impart upon an aspiring writer. It appears networking is an integral part of the industry. I thought what better than to check my own back yard to begin with. I know your wife holds a pen as well, so two flighted perspectives with one inquisitive stone.
Thanks,
Brent

Hi Art,
Hats off for the publication of your poetry book relating to the environment. A very meaningful initiative. I found out too late about the reading taking place at WordSmyth. Otherwise, I would have attended. Btw, do you remember that line in the movie, Prizzie’s Honor , where the home decorator is chatting with her friend,, a mobster. She tells him about decorating in Art Deco. He replies, “Art Who??, is that your new boyfriend?” 🙂 Good luck and keep the creative juices flowing. – Phil Mader

Loved your piece about Moth Fairy…..would love to follow your stories but not sure how to do that? Thanks for this post….a beautiful tribute from top to bottom. Made me cry with a giant swelling of my heart.

There should be a “follow” button on the blog you can click to get notifications of my blog posts as they are published. And if you want to comment on a specific blog post, you should be able to do that at the bottom of the post.